Glass optical polarizers are made by a number of different corporations using different methods. Among these glass optical polarizers are the Polarcor™ (Corning Incorporated, Corning, N.Y.) glass polarizing products which are formed by heat treating a glass containing silver and halide ions to precipitate silver halide particles, which particles are then stretched in a redraw step which is followed by a reduction step in which the silver halide particles are reduced to form anisotropic silver particles in the glass. Other polarizers are made from sodium silicate (soda lime) glass by ion exchanging silver ions for sodium ions near the glass surface, followed by heat treating and drawing the soda lime glass to elongate silver particles in the glass.
While the presently available polarizers have served industry well, with increasing miniaturization, particularly in the telecommunications industry, there is a need for glass optical polarizers that are both thin and strong. The present disclosure is directed to such polarizer products and to a method for making the same.